Size-blindness in the Green Transition

We need a new language to see what matters.

The idea that bigger is better is so deeply ingrained in Danish culture, media, and business practices that we might best be described as size-blind. The same pattern exists in many other countries—particularly across the Western world. We'll explain this through our own experience in Denmark.

Today's agenda

• Why it’s important to move beyond size-blindness
  
• How the Scaling Impact Framework can help you do that
  
  

1. The Size-blind Problem

In Denmark, we can hardly imagine that there could be anything to gain by limiting our size or economic growth.

This blind spot is one of the main reasons why the green transition remains, so far, a failure. Not because we lack goals, ambitions, plans, or even the implementation of new technologies—but because it never amounts to a true transition. Our new “green” solutions fail to make a real dent in consumption, which continues to rise steadily.

For example, Denmark has used the same share of fossil fuels (68%, when including shipping) for roughly 20 years. We add new renewables to the mix, but we also add just as much fossil fuel. We don’t see a transition—only addition. On a global scale, the numbers are even worse: the fossil fuel share is 80%, and that figure hasn’t changed since 1900.

Bigger isn’t always better—especially when you’re trying to make a problem smaller

We tend to believe that problems can only be solved by scaling up our solutions. If something doesn’t work, we go from big to huge. From huge to mega.

The logic sounds simple: more economic growth will stimulate and finance new technology, which will scale up, driving prices down so more people can afford it—thereby reducing our total negative impact on the planet. This logic allows us to continue our daily lives as if the world weren’t in the midst of a roaring climate and biodiversity crisis.

The problem is that there is no scientific evidence that we can address these crises through growth alone. Especially not when we consider the many fronts where nature is in trouble—from warmer and wilder weather, to nitrogen emissions creating dead zones in the oceans, pesticide-contaminated drinking water, depleted farmland, microplastics in our bodies, and such a dramatic loss of biodiversity that scientists now speak of a sixth mass extinction. And the list goes on.

After decades of pursuing this plan without success, it may be time to look elsewhere. Or perhaps we should simply admit that our behavior fits a little too well with Einstein’s old definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

2. Separate Impact and Growth

The time seems ripe for a reckoning with the idea that bigger is always better. Once we remove our blinders and actively look for the benefits of restraint, we begin to see a wealth of powerful and overlooked solutions emerge.

What we lack is a language to talk about them—and, crucially, a political system that creates a level playing field between large and small actors. Today, the system unproductively favors the giants. At present, the big players bowl with bumpers on, while the small ones play without bumpers, blindfolded, and with their hands tied behind their backs. Yet, remarkably, many still manage to deliver impressive results.

As the renowned British economist David Fleming once said:

“Big problems do not require big solutions. They require small-scale solutions within large frameworks.”

That is why we must understand what we can gain—and how we can gain—by limiting ourselves. In other words, we must rediscover the economies of small.

An easy way to begin is by separating the idea of positive impact from growth. At the moment, growth is too often used as a proxy for impact.

People say, “We must grow to have an impact,” 

While thinking, “We must grow to be successful.” 

When, what they should be asking is: “What is the best way to scale our impact?”—because there are more ways to do that than through growth alone. In other words, there is more than one way to be successful.

Our 8-minute mini-course “How to Scale Impact” helps you get started on that process—with a framework of eight strategies and plenty of concrete cases. And, if you want more cases, you can check out The Edge Playbook with 10 cases of companies that leverage strategic self-limitation to diversify their scaling of impact rather than solely relying on growth.